PERFORM to acquire RunningBall

Multimedia sports content firm Perform Group plc has proposed the acquisition of real-time sports data provider RunningBall Holding AG for a minimum consideration of Euro 101 million (maximum of Euro 120 million).

Under the terms of the proposal an initial consideration of Euro 70 million will consist of Euro 20 million in cash, financed from existing cash resources, and Euro 50 million in the form of 13.5 million new ordinary shares in the Company that will be issued to the sellers. A deferred consideration of between Euro 31 million and Euro 50 million will be payable entirely in cash and will be financed from new debt facilities.

Total consideration will be based on a nine times multiple applied to the audited EBITDA of RunningBall for the year ended 31 December 2012.   RunningBall delivered revenues of Euro 16.1 million and EBITDA of Euro 7.2 million, up 20.1 percent and 75.4 percent year-on-year respectively in its full year 2011 results.

Expected opportunities following the acquisition include an increase in licensees and the events they subscribe to, increased sport and events coverage, the development of a new visualisation product that represents elements of the match directly from RunningBall data and upselling RunningBall Data to Perform’s Watch&Bet and Watch&Trade licencees.

In addition Perform will utilise RunningBall data in combination with Goal.com’s editorial and video content to deliver additional revenues, improve real-time data quality on Soccerway.com, Sportal.com.au and Spox.com, add real-time data to GSM’s core data product (Perform’s data syndication business), as well as enhance its Watch&Trade and Watch&Bet products by integrating real-time data and video.

Oliver Slipper, joint chief executive officer of Perform, commented on the development saying:  “We are delighted to be able to announce the proposed acquisition of RunningBall, which would be the largest and most significant in Perform’s history to date. RunningBall is a perfect fit for Perform – it is a high quality, high growth and high margin business whose unrivalled real time data offers us significant opportunities to accelerate our development. We are really excited about this transaction which adds the best sports data to our existing live video, video on demand and editorial content portfolio, enabling Perform to offer both businesses and consumers a complete digital sports offering.”

“This is a great opportunity for everyone associated with RunningBall. Perform is a perfect partner, and as a market leader in digital sports with an extensive portfolio of rights, will really help grow our business. Our focus on supplying high quality real-time data is very complementary to Perform’s sports editorial and video products, opening up a wide range of opportunities to capitalise on,” added Hans Thomas Gross, RunningBall’s founder and chief executive officer.

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